Why are static classes considered “classes” and “reference types”?

Question

I’ve been pondering about the C# and CIL type system today and I’ve started to wonder why static classes are considered classes. There are many ways in which they are not really

Answer 1

Sure, they could have been made into a separate kind of thing.

But that would have required additional work in the CLR, the BCL, and across the language teams, and I that would have left other, more important things undone.

From a purely aesthetic point of view, I might agree with you.